Team Cascadia (photo story)

In the summer of 2004 I traveled to New York City to take part in
and photograph the protests at the Republican National Convention.
We start out with the Church Ladies for Choice because I wish to consider
in these captions the role the church plays in the Republican party.

A political party that values profits more than parents has no "Family Values." (This banner that I assembled for the protests shows, from left to right, 3 Images by Eric Drooker and 1 by Kathe Kollwitz).

The night before the convention most of the delegates went to Broadway plays while squardrons of police stood guard. Many of the delegates expressed their love for "family values" at this high class strip club. Below a protester from Portland is arrested for walking towards one of these theaters. Later, a delegate shakes her fist at the protesters who were not arrested.

Our east coast convergence space was in a purple room at St. Peter's
Church in the Bronx. Inspired by the Pastor's sermon, I wrote my own sermon:
Jesus told a rich man seeking the kingdom of heaven to "sell all you possess
and give the money to the poor." Jesus is not an easy God. He did not encourage his followers to pursue all the world's wealth guilt-free in exchange for "giving up" someone else's ability to choose whether or not to give birth or get married.

The most moving protests were the two poor people's marches
that took place on the opening day of the convention. Here, in the center
of the photograph, the Bible is held where its author walked—in the streets
with the poor.

Our friends were arrested on their way to peaceful protests along with dozens of New Yorkers who were just on their way home. Without access to phone calls or lawyers, they were penned up in an abandoned hazardous waste site for about 24 hours and then sent to jail.

We don't value the right-wing Christian's concerns about what goes on in other
people's bedrooms. Earlier in the day, in the subway tunnels about twenty feet
below where this couple stands, Mennonite women sang about simple living and true faith.

As they sang, their men passed out free gospel CDs with these words from
the Bible printed on the back: "If my people, which are called by my name, shall
humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked
ways; then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sins, and will heal their land."

Religious conservatives who have allied themselves with Bush's war and his
dream of unfettered capitalism talk as if they are the guardians of Western
Civilization. However, capitalism is not conservative.

"Capitalism tears down the old to keep building the new in a perpetual gamble on tomorrow. It is of all things least worthy of the name conservative." —Garry Wills. The photo shows Cheri Honkala who with her two young children was once homeless herself. Now she speaks out for everyone whose life has been torn apart by "progress."